Monthly Retrospective: October 2024

I spent much of October “convalescing in the countryside,” as I jokingly called it, on an extended visit to family in rural Massachusetts. From there, I did some job interviews in the city and wound up getting a job! I still have some business to take care of back in Vancouver, but very soon I will be back in Massachusetts to stay, and for many reasons I am feeling better about that than I felt about my attempt to move. I just love this landscape and I can’t explain it.

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Photo to Painting: October Skies

After painting the aurora this month, I went back into the archive to paint photos from September as well as several cool skies from last winter. Now that I am back in Massachusetts, it feels a lot more emotionally possible to paint my old Massachusetts photos. Suburban Aurora Like many in North America, I was … Read more

Autumn Palette 2024 Revisited

I’ve been using my autumn palette outside and in timely paintings for about a month, and I feel I have gathered enough experience to quickly review the colors and see if my expectations matched reality. Top Tier Colors I’m using these a lot: Also Good Borderline Not used as much as I expected What am … Read more

Sketching Palettes vs Triad Palettes

Reading Hazel Soan’s The Art of the Limited Palette and trying some triad paintings has given me a different perspective the colors that I reach for and the way that I think about my color library. The colors you choose for a walking-around sketching palette are somewhat different than the colors you choose for a triad.

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Photo to Painting: September BC Sunsets

I’m back to painting some of my own photos! Many of these were intentionally taken as reference photos, to remind me of a scene that I wanted to paint more than to create great art in and of themselves. These are my favorite types of photos to show alongside the painting because it shows how it takes imagination and heavy mental editing to get to a scene from a snapshot.

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Artist Palette Profiles: Jill Gustavis

Jill Gustavis is a watercolor artist from Western Massachusetts. On Instagram, she did a 100 Days project where she painted with different triads, which is definitely interesting to me with my newfound interest in limited palettes. She has some great blog entries; I’ve read her post, Magic Happens When You Repeat Paintings, several times. I don’t usually like repeating paintings, but she makes a great case for exploring, and I love every iteration of her example.

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Monthly Retrospective: September 2024

I didn’t know it at the start of the month, but September was my last calendar month in British Columbia. I’ve been dreaming about moving back to Massachusetts due to homesickness pretty much from the moment I arrived five months ago, but recently, the feeling switched over from “I miss home, but I am determined … Read more

Where to buy art supplies in Canada

In the U.S. I did not find it difficult to find places to buy watercolor supplies, especially online. National chains Blick, Cheap Joe’s, and Jerry’s Artarama are common and do a lot of online business, and regional specialty stores like St Louis Art Supply or Wet Paint Art in St. Paul, MN are also good enough to be worth ordering from even if you live far away.

In Canada, I have found it difficult to source the good stuff. There are fewer giant chain art stores and those that exist carry smaller selections at higher prices. However, I have poked around carefully and found some specific sources for the specific brands, colors, etc. that I like. Here are some of the more promising art stores that ship nationally.

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